


love on the brain

by loveleee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Betty & Veronica totally fail the Bechdel test, Canon Divergent, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Post-Finale, kind of fluffy but also a little sadness because i can't leave well enough alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 21:48:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10953381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveleee/pseuds/loveleee
Summary: Veronica comes over after school on Monday, a stack of magazines, poster board and glue sticks in tow. She makes a fashion mood board in anticipation of every season, and insists Betty create one for spring as well. Betty hasn’t actually read a magazine in years – and doesn’t know what sort of magazines are showcasing spring fashion already, with Christmas still a few weeks off – but she sits on her bed and flips idly through a thick copy of Harper’s Bazaar, while Veronica works through her stack at Betty’s desk, brisk and methodical.[after the events of the finale, Betty & Veronica debrief.]





	love on the brain

**Author's Note:**

> Set post-1x13, but Fred wasn't shot.

Veronica comes over after school on Monday, a stack of magazines, poster board and glue sticks in tow. She makes a fashion mood board in anticipation of every season, and insists Betty create one for spring as well. Betty hasn’t actually read a magazine in years – and doesn’t know what sort of magazines are showcasing spring fashion already, with Christmas still a few weeks off – but she sits on her bed and flips idly through a thick copy of _Harper’s Bazaar_ , while Veronica works through her stack at Betty’s desk, brisk and methodical.

“So what did you and Mr. Jones get up to after we went to Pop’s?” Veronica asks casually, tearing out a page with practiced ease.

“We hung out at his dad’s trailer.” At Veronica’s look, she laughs. “It’s better than it sounds, I swear.”

“I’d certainly hope so.” Veronica cuts out the image of a baby blue stiletto, careful not to snip off the heel. “My girl deserves champagne and roses. _Especially_ after that speech you gave.”

Betty bites her lip, smiling at the memory, Jughead’s messy hair and trembling hands. “Ronnie, he told me he loves me.”

Veronica’s mouth falls open. She drops her glue stick on the desk without another thought and joins Betty on the bed. “Oh, Betty,” she says, curling her legs beneath her. “What did you say?”

“I said I loved him.”

Veronica presses her hand to her heart. “I’m so happy for you, Betts. You two are just…” She sighs. “I ship you _so hard_ , okay?”

Betty laughs, but Veronica presses for more. “So then what happened?”

Thinking about it again makes her feel flushed all over, and she draws her knees up under her chin, looping her arms around her legs. “I don’t know,” she demurs. “We talked, we kissed.”

“Not in that order, I hope,” Veronica jokes, but when Betty blushes in response, her dark eyes open wider. “Oh my god, did you have sex?”

“Shh!” Betty hisses, swatting at her half-heartedly with one of the magazines. “My parents are home.”

“ _Well?_ ”

“No,” Betty shakes her head. “I mean – almost, I think?”

“You _think_? Honey, if you’re not sure…”

“No, I just mean – we were going to, and then…”

And then the Serpents had come knocking. As much as Betty loves Veronica, trusts Veronica – she can’t tell her that.

“And then what?” Veronica demands.

Then the Serpents had left, and Jughead had closed the door, and he’d shrugged the jacket off and wrapped his arms around her. Told her it didn’t mean anything (or okay, maybe it meant something, but not what she was thinking, _I promise, Betty, I swear_ ). His fingers had found her bare skin beneath the coat she’d wrapped around herself and she’d pulled off his sweater because she needed to be closer, needed his heat again after the chill that had seeped into the little trailer. They’d ended up in his bed. He took off her bra and her skirt and he touched her through her underwear, kissed her breasts and her ribcage and her thighs. She touched him, and he looked at her like she was the last thing tethering him to the ground, and maybe she was. (Maybe this was what she was signing up for. Maybe it scared her more than she was willing to admit.) She breathed the words into his neck: _I’m in love with you._

But Betty doesn’t say any of that. She can’t say any of that: it’s hers, and Jughead’s, and she’s trying not to think about those five minutes in between that have gone fuzzy and soft in her mind, when she watched as Jughead stood in the rain and accepted a gift tied up with so many invisible strings.

“It just felt like it wasn’t the right time,” she says instead. “We went to bed.”

“ _What_?”

“I don’t know, it…I don’t want my first time to be in a trailer, y’know?” (It’s a lie; with Jughead’s mouth on her neck, his hands on her skin, she hadn’t cared at all.)

“It’s not like you have a wealth of options,” Veronica points out. “He lives with a foster family, and you live…” She gestures around them, to the pink and white walls, the stuffed animals at the foot of the bed. “Here.”

Betty shrugs. “I can wait.”

“Well, _I_ can’t. I expect all the details when it finally happens. What did he _say_ , what did he _do,_ what is it like to have sex with someone in a _beanie_ –”

“Shut up,” Betty laughs, tapping Veronica’s leg with her foot. “He takes it off for – that kind of thing.”

“ _Really_.” Veronica taps her chin thoughtfully. “So many layers, that Jughead Jones.”

“What did _you_ do after Pop’s?” Betty says, eager to change the subject.

Veronica picks up a _Vogue Italia_ and opens it to a random page in the middle. “I went home,” she says, suddenly, strangely interested in what Betty is pretty certain is just an ad. “Archie tagged along.”

“Oh.” Betty doesn’t know why she’s surprised – Veronica had practically sat in Archie’s lap in their booth at Pop’s, and if she hadn’t been so distracted by her own boyfriend, Betty probably would have connected the dots between a few of Archie’s odd looks and how perfectly they coincided with Veronica’s hands disappearing below the table.

After a pause, Veronica looks up, meeting Betty’s eyes. “And…I’m not sure how you’re going to react to this, but…Archie and I did have sex.”

“Oh my god,” Betty blurts out before she can stop herself. “No, that’s – I’m so happy for you, too! I mean it, V,” she adds, resting a hand on her friend’s knee. “I think you and Archie are great together.”

“Thanks.” Veronica’s smile doesn’t quite meet her eyes.

“How was it?” Betty ventures, unsure how much of an answer she actually wants. She forces herself not to look towards the window.

“He was so sweet, Betts,” Veronica says, her eyes now crinkling a little at the corners. “And let’s be real, you know that boy is jacked.”

Betty nods, unable to suppress a smirk.

“So it was great. It was _really_ great. But, I don’t know.” Veronica sighs, and closes her magazine on her lap. “This is going to sound _so_ Sweet Valley High, but – when I hear about you and Jughead – you’re so in love, and you haven’t even _had_ sex – it makes me wish that we were already there, you know? I wish we just _knew_. That he’s my person, and I’m his person, and we’re not dancing around one another, trying to figure out what the other one wants.”

It sounds uncomfortably close to what Betty had wanted back at the start of the school year. For Archie to just _get it._ The difference is that with Veronica, there’s actually something to get.

“I’ve known Jughead my whole life,” Betty reminds her gently. “You and Archie are still getting to know each other.”

“I know.” Veronica sighs. “I know, it’s stupid. We’re texting, we hung out today during study hall. But I don’t feel _settled_. And with my dad coming back soon…” She gives Betty a sad smile. “I really want that.”

Betty twists her mouth sympathetically, and takes Veronica’s hand. “Well, I know Archie _really_ likes you. And even if it takes him months to figure it out, you’ve got me.”

Veronica squeezes her hand back. “Thanks, B.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've been mulling over a bunch of different fic ideas for Riverdale, but surprisingly, this was the first one that actually came together. Short & sweet. I hope you enjoy! I'm also on tumblr at imreallyloveleee. :)


End file.
